Stop thinking about work at the weekend!

Imagine this for a moment: you’ve made it to Friday afternoon, your work is done, your working hours are over and the weekend is nigh. Woohoo!

Then you find yourself being restless on Friday evening, wondering if you did everything you were supposed to do. And you wake up on Saturday morning worrying about the issue you simply hadn’t resolved that week. And you spend Sunday with that slightly itchy feeling thinking about all the things you have to do in the week to come.

Your weekend is over and you haven’t fully relaxed, you haven’t managed to fully let go of work.

So what can you do to stop thinking about work at the weekend? I have 3 practical tips for you to help you get back to enjoying your weekends.

Tip 1: Be in the present moment.

This gentle exercise helps you to focus on being in the present moment as well as helping you to calm down and relax. Lie down flat on your back with your legs straight out. Place your hands flat on your tummy, one above the other. Now gently breathe in and out. Don’t try and manipulate your breath in any way, just breathe normally. As you breathe pay attention to the movement of your hands as your tummy moves up with each breath in and down again with each breath out. Put your full attention and focus on the movement of your hands and your tummy. If any thoughts about anything else come into your mind just gently bring your attention back to the movement of your hands and your tummy. Each time your mind wanders off, gently bring your focus back to your tummy going up and down.

Tip 2: Make a clean break.

Take yourself back to that Friday afternoon, to that moment when you shut your computer down, closed your notebook and put your pen away. Now take two minutes, just two minutes, to stop and close your eyes. As you sit there, tell yourself that work is now done for the week, that you can now leave this work where it belongs, at work. Tell yourself that you don’t have to carry this with you now, it is done. Consciously close the door on work in your mind. Then go home, whether that is physically going home from an office or whether it is leaving the room in which you work at home. And as you arrive at home, consciously open the door on your home life. This is something you can do at the end of every day, not just at the end of the week. Have a go and notice the difference.

Tip 3: Let it go

This is another very simple exercise. Each time you notice that your thoughts have turned to work matters, when you want them to be at home, imagine putting those thoughts in a bubble and letting them float away. Every time you realise that you are thinking about the work you should have done, or the assignment you haven’t finished or the work that you are going to have to do, simply put that thought in a bubble and let it float away while you gently bring your attention back to where you are actually are at that moment.

All of these techniques take practice and a degree of persistence. The more you practice them the more effect they will have. The more you do them, the more you will be able to focus on where you want to be at the weekend instead of work.

Go, enjoy.